I'm pulling my hair out over this one. I'm simply trying to print from Illustrator CS3 to Acrobat 8. It will print colour designs fine, as long as they contain no images. But if I try to print a design with a psd in it, or load a psd into illustrator to print, the whole thing comes out in black and white.

I've just upgraded to Windows 7 64bit but have switched to XP compatability mode for Illustrator, still no luck. I'm not sure Win7 is the issue though as I've had this problem before, in 32bit XP, but can't remember how I resolved it. All the updates are installed.

Does the same thing happen when saving as a pdf? It sould like you are using a pdf preset that converts the color images to b/w. Try a different preset. Also check the print preference as it has a place to change from color to b/w. While you're there check out the rest of the print preference.

This only happens when saving as a pdf. I've checked the presets. Plus if I load an ai file with no photos in it, it prints to pdf in full colour fine, but if I load a psd, or a design with a colour photo, the pdf appears as black and white.

Ok the Output pane of the print dialogue pointed me in the right direction. I'd got it working for straight psds with yet another go at updating; but in additions, somehow a Pantone colour was the print output mix in addition to the other 4. I've loaded some completely different client work and it now works fine, so I just need to purge that Pantone and it should all be good.